Episode 04: Pop Culture

Meet the cast

About

Watch

Transcript

Episode Four: Pop Culture

00:00:00:10 - 00:00:18:10

Inara

Welcome to Campus Conversations, brought to you by UCL’s Student Success Team,

Our topic is pop culture and to spice things up, we have some topic related conversations in the hat that we'll pick out and discuss.

00:00:18:10 - 00:00:23:20

Inara

My name is Inara and I'm a second-year history, politics and economics student at UCL, SSEES.

00:00:23:23 - 00:00:27:18

Keira

I'm Keira and I'm a second-year biomedical engineering student.

00:00:27:20 - 00:00:39:13

Luther

And my name's Luther. I'm not a student here, I work in the Student Success team, I'm one of two managers within the team, and we've brought this podcast together to get further insight into student life.

00:00:39:13 - 00:00:43:00

Inara

yeah. Go ahead. Okay

00:00:45:23 - 00:00:57:01

Keira

Okay, so.

ow do you feel about the role of cancel culture in holding public figures accountable? Has it gone too far or not far enough?

00:00:57:09 - 00:00:59:08

Luther

I feel like Inara’s got to go.

00:00:59:10 - 00:01:05:17

Inara

Yeah, well, I just said cancel culture. I was like, oh yeah, ding ding ding. I mean, sometimes.

00:01:05:17 - 00:01:23:12

Inara

It can be too much. So you have to think about considerations with online bullying. Like even though a celebrity is a public figure and it's hard to humanize them at times, they are still a person at the end of the day. So I definitely think cancel culture can go a bit too far. Yeah. Sense online. Yeah.

00:01:23:16 - 00:01:24:16

Keira

I think it's also valuable to actually discuss like what cancel culture actually is. And so what I'm aware of is that cancel culture is the aim of that is to hold an individual, usually of celebrity status, accountable if they've done something that's considered wrong, and usually that's based on like moral grounds. And what I'm aware of and what I've seen on the internet is that people tend to diverge away from that initial aim, and instead it turns into online harassment.

00:02:08:10 - 00:02:08:16

Inara

Yeah exactly. Yeah. There's a fine line between holding someone to account. Yeah. And then whether they deserve to be held to account as well as another one. And then just the cancel culture.

00:02:18:24 - 00:02:22:05

Luther

All right. Let me ask you either, if you don't have to say who. But have you ever canceled anybody?

00:02:26:12 - 00:02:31:05

Inara

I have probably like organizations. Interesting. So, like boycotting that could be seen as canceling in a sense. Or maybe, like, canceling a certain club in, like, London or not going to a certain place because of something that's happened. So, yeah, places more so than more so than people just because. Yeah, I don't really agree with canceling like people in a sense.

And like if people or organizations, when I say people, I'm talking more about people of like celebrity status. If they do something that doesn't align with my own values, then that's when I, you know, I tend to, just drop them into the sea.

00:03:12:02 - 00:03:30:17

Keira

Yeah. But I do think it's really important for people to have a critical eye on cancel culture, because I think it's so easy to, you know, kind of fall into cancel culture, just holding someone accountable. And that's how people take it so far, because they don't actually think about it before they start going into rather extreme, you know, approaches to it.

00:03:40:10 - 00:03:43:17

Luther

So interesting. You mentioned, organisations. Because I feel no way about canceling or not supporting an organization. But for some reason, well, not for some reason. Empathy. They're for human beings. And if they've done something wrong a lot of the time, I remember years ago, I won't say the name, but a celebrity got canceled for something they had done like 20 years previously when they were a teenager. And the empathy within me at that time thought they were 15. They said something disrespectful, but it's 20 years removed from that. How much have they changed? I was going through the motions of thinking, you know, trying to be empathetic. Whereas when it comes to organisations and institutions, I've got a lot less tolerance, I suppose. Is this the same for both of you?

00:04:32:09 - 00:04:32:23

Inara

Yeah, I would say too, like if you're an organisation or company, you have a board of directors, so you've intention of they hired a certain demographic for your board of directors, and then you've intentionally hired a certain amount of people for your social media. You've intentionally hired an entire H.R. Team that looks the same. I mean, like the easiest example that comes to mind is that makeup companies so especially like 2016 peak YouTube makeup era, and there would be entire companies at their darkest shade wouldn't even sort of fit like a mixed ethnicity person. And they would only support influencers that were of a certain look, and they would only create makeup for people of a certain look, things like that. I mean, I totally agree with canceling those organisations. on my social media, for instance, I get, there's this one specific influencer who, who tries on, the darker shades.

00:05:27:16 - 00:05:48:11

Keira

No, I love it so much. And I think what she's doing is really important. Because, you know, her aim is to promote inclusivity and diversity, but, a lot of these companies just aren't really doing that, and she's essentially holding them accountable. But what really annoys me is that she's essentially been canceled on social media because people are like, you're basically nit picking at this point, like, just get something that is your own shade, but no one is providing her shade.

00:05:56:06 - 00:06:16:19

Luther

interesting you mention that because I guess whenever somebody does get canceled, there's going to be a group of people who either feel they shouldn't have been or upset by the cancellation. Have you had any body who's been canceled that you've you've just mentioned one, that you felt like shouldn't have been and again, don't mean to say names.

00:06:16:21 - 00:06:17:08

Inara

A few musicians that come to mind. Okay.

00:06:19:22 - 00:06:20:23

Luther

I know who you’re thinking of!

00:06:21:02 - 00:06:21:17

Inara

the one that you guys Instagram. Not that one. Definitely not the…There's like, tapes of that, so. No, but like the other one. Where it's like just sort of like there's just testimonies of people and that makes me feel more like there's some musicians I'm like, okay, I love your music, but I have to cancel you. There's like concrete evidence of what you've been doing. And that's wrong. Whereas like with others, it's just like sort of a speculation or there's been it's like a debate in general about them.

I mean, speaking in our context of students. Yes. Especially in first year, there were so many people that would get canceled. So like but canceled for the right reasons. I wouldn't even use cancel as that word because there were some people who were just I mean, you could only just describe them as dangerous personalities, honestly. And then you'd see, like a post on Instagram was a Snapchat story and it'd be like, this is this guy he has done X, y, Z or this this person, not necessarily guy, they've done xyz z. Stay away or you would cancel someone for being like a particularly bad flatmate or something like that. So you see you see people being canceled a lot like

00:07:23:24 - 00:07:31:12

Keira

it's quite relevant in student life as well. So but in just different ways. When you start, you probably don't expect it.

00:07:31:14 - 00:07:32:04

Inara

Canceling someone's module because they take too long to mock essays. Like you get things from second year and third years and you'll be in the common room. But like looking at your module options and they'll be like, don't do that module because they aren't the best lecturer, or don't do that module because the exams are ridiculously hard and they're not related to what you're learning in class. That saved me for a few modules. I have to say. But that's also how, like, teaching stuff can get canceled in that sense. But I wouldn't put I think like, we need to distinguish somebody that's done, like, clearly bad things. That needs to be an awareness being raised about that and then cancel culture just being a general like, think there's two different things.

00:08:10:13 - 00:08:29:07

Inara

Okay. This one is like staring at me. Oh, okay. Is it better to stay informed with the news? Despite exposing yourself to issues and topics that are disturbing, challenging or is it preferable to switch off from negative feeds and prioritize your own health and well-being?

00:08:29:12 - 00:08:37:23

Keira

I like to stay informed as much as I can because I feel like I don't want to feel like I can't. I always want to help, basically. And through educating myself, I feel like I am helping them because then I can, you know, take certain actions to support, you know what? Whatever's going on I look, I'm really empathetic person. And so whenever I do see all these things going on and I consume this media daily, I do tend to find myself kind of feeling really low afterwards.

00:09:04:11 - 00:09:19:17

Inara

I’m a politics student, free media is a right. There are people in the world that wish that they had access to media the way that we did. So I always frame it in that sense. So even if it is exhausting, I recognize that it's a right and a privilege that I might not have in the future. Say, the government was to change or say I want to move to a different country. And it was, you know, it was dictatorship or so and so. So I think it's 100% important to tune in. It's better to know what's going on than to tune in every three months and be caught off guard as to how the world has developed whilst you've been in your, you know, blanket or under the veil.

00:09:40:18 - 00:09:46:23

Luther

you still feel that way regardless of the personal impacts it might have on you?

00:09:47:00 - 00:09:47:13

Inara

Yeah, it is like bumming out. But I feel again, when you frame it in a sense that it's a privilege to be able to have so much media to consume, to be able to like, be at university and research with so many articles or different media sources. I'm like, okay, there are a lot of women in the world that cannot do that right now, especially like you think of it as a woman and this you know, obvious examples of countries, not to mention. So there's it offsets being able to be educated is. Yeah, it's yeah.

00:10:19:12 - 00:10:25:00

Keira

I think recognizing consuming this media as a privilege is like such an important approach

because there are people who really wish that they could have access to all these things. I do think that there is a balance, though. You should definitely stay up to date as much as you can. But to the point where it becomes detrimental to your mental health, I think it's okay to step back for a bit, but also, you know, make sure that you do stay on top of things at the same time.

00:10:49:07 - 00:10:49:16

Luther

I do think there is a balance to be struck. I remember one time about probably about a month or two ago, like as soon as I woke up, I was on Instagram and just seeing these, like, horrific images. Yeah. And I was glued for a good 90 minutes. Yeah. And the rest of my day was just completely destroyed. And, you know, in the grand context of things, my day being destroyed isn't the worst thing that could happen, but it made me a little bit more mindful in terms of, okay, well, if I am going to engage and stay aware, and especially if I'm going to be shown things that are distressing or difficult to consume, then be mindful of where I'm at personally as well. You know, perhaps don't do that. Why not just open my eyes first thing in the morning, or if I'm feeling particularly vulnerable, or if there's difficult things going on in my life, then just trying to have some degree of management of that, because I think you can do both. I think you can stay aware, up to date, informed, but also protect your own mental health at the same time.

00:11:49:16 - 00:11:51:23

Inara

Yeah, no phone policy in the mornings is hard.

00:11:51:23 - 00:11:52:14

Luther

Oh, okay.

00:11:52:17 - 00:11:53:14

Inara

Especially like because I know Thursdays I have an a politics seminar and I have to do my reading because I have a huge like five hour block. I'm like, okay, 30 minutes. Like when you wake up, just like you have a book, if you're like really bored books. New York Times crossword is there. But you have to get the separate app. So get the New York Times games app and then you don't get any news notifications. So that's a trick. But yeah. So no screens for that. Yeah.

00:12:16:11 - 00:12:36:20

Keira

I look at content like I just keep looking which which is something I'm still trying to find that buttons basically because I feel really passionate about certain issues and the issues that. Well, one of the issues that I'm really passionate about, you do end up seeing horrific images on online, but I feel like it's almost my duty to educate myself on this and like, realize the extent of how severe these issues are, because through that, I feel like I can, I can help.

00:12:51:21 - 00:13:14:17

Luther

I think sometimes there's an empathetic view that, there's nothing I can do anyway, so there's no point watching it. There's no point kind of engaging with it, because what can I do? But from what it sounds like you're saying is actually, no, I'm informed and I can take some action, however limited or large you think it might be, you can do something. Whether it's volunteering, whether it's donating, there's something to be done. Yeah, I think that shows a level of optimism as opposed to a lot of other narratives that I hear around my car, just can't be bothered. The world's messed up anyway. There's nothing I can do. So I think it shows a level of kind of optimism that still sounds like it.

00:13:34:09 - 00:13:50:18

Inara

I wonder if you've, subscribed to any UCL newsletters like newspapers. So we have on campus quite a few that cover like news around UCL. So some of them are a bit more opinionated pieces than others, but I'm not sure if you're familiar with any. Do you follow any? What's your experience at the UCL? UCL newspapers?

00:13:52:19 - 00:14:03:08

Luther

I’m a staff member so I follow like staff related news, but it would be interesting to know what's going on on like, the student side of things, cause I don't receive any of those newsletters.

00:14:03:17 - 00:14:18:15

Inara

I mean, like, I have, I do and then like because they always sort of run investigative pieces. It's funny because you will at some points of get approached by what I know, you'll get a DM and be like, oh, you know, I saw that you're in this society. Do you have anything to say about what's been happening here? And it's funny because with the society, at the start of the year, we had a huge we found ourselves being involved in a huge investigative piece, but there's a group on campus. But it's it's a bit training as well, I'd say, with the UCL student news, and you can get quite in your head about it. So it's nice to just definitely switch off.

00:14:37:16 - 00:14:54:10

Luther

Do you generally find that students, more on the side of being politically engaged and informed, or is it more to the side of, of apathy and disengagement from your own experiences?

00:14:55:04 - 00:14:56:18

Keira

Think it'll be different for you as a politics student.

00:14:56:22 - 00:14:58:24

Inara

I Know. It's actually, you know what? In the in CS, everyone knows like School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies. If you don't know, I'm talking about we have a few degree courses and you can tell someone's personality from like the degree course. So like the sociology and politics people in your seminar, you will be able to tell that you have one of those. And then like with the history politics, econ, we're not usually as in not as engaged like by personality. So usually we wouldn't be as of. But that's just a generalisation though. It depends. It varies a lot more than you'd think in a humanities focused department. But how is it for like STEM?

00:15:33:20 - 00:15:55:11

Keira

So the thing is, you actually don't know if someone is engaged in, you know, within current affairs because sometimes I think it's really common for people to base one's engagement off of whether they're posting on social media, for instance, like I post on my story sometimes about issues that I'm passionate about. And if someone were to not post it, I know this is bad, but part of me would be like, are you? Do you know what's going on? I don't actually go up to them and say like.

00:16:06:04 - 00:16:09:03

Inara

Do you know what's going on? Yeah.

00:16:09:05 - 00:16:15:17

Keira

But I think a lot of people are quick to judge on whether someone's engaged through the amount of content they're posting on that story. So I don't actually know if, people on my course are as engaged as I think. But obviously there are a lot of vocal people as well, which I really do appreciate.

00:16:28:05 - 00:16:43:02

Inara

That's the thing. You wouldn't know. And I know a lot of people around me as well are trying to stay, not as on social media. So we only chat, like maybe we only check messages once a day. We try not to touch Instagram, have time limits, and then I have a friend that he sets his time limit with a passcode, that his flatmate has something like, oh, should I text to you about this? Like two days ago? He's like, I've not had access to Instagram because of my flatmates not been able to unlock it for me. I like I do like it and I have been inspired by that, but also the perception and of what that might come across. As you know, politically, it's a great way to reach out to people. But I mean, there's lots of in-person ways to stay updated as well and to show that you're politically engaged, showing up to seminars, you know, there's other ways.

00:17:12:20 - 00:17:14:02

Luther

So do you feel that way that if you don't post online, it might be perceived as that you don't care or that you're you're not engaged?

00:17:20:22 - 00:17:21:16

Keira

Yeah.

00:17:21:18 - 00:17:22:15

Inara

Before. Yes. But now I don't think so. I think like in person, like the people that do know me know that like I am engaged and I try to attend more things in person now. So even though I'm not as active on social media, I don't feel like that anymore in a sense.

00:17:38:09 - 00:17:39:11

Luther

Yeah, interesting.

00:17:39:13 - 00:17:59:22

Keira

I don't agree with that. But I know that that is the case now and that people that if you don't post about some national story, people will just assume that, like, you don't care. Because I know that people were even reposting this post on that story saying, we will never forget your silence on these issues on social media. And you never know, like the people who haven't posted, they might have donated like hundreds of pounds to certain charities and organizations, supporting the issues that are going on. So yeah, even though I don't necessarily agree with that, because also my friends know that I'm really passionate about these things, but I don't post all the time about it. But yeah, it's just people really quick to assume based on your activity on social media.

00:18:29:04 - 00:18:31:17

Luther

I'm going to pick another one up here. So we've got all right, let me take this one. Okay. So do reality TV shows such as dating or real estate shows have a negative impact on societal values and perceptions of reality, or is it just harmless escapism?

00:19:00:07 - 00:19:00:14

Inara

Oh, just look at me! Okay. TLDR, I think that it's not just harmless escapism.

00:19:10:06 - 00:19:11:08

Luther

TLDR?

00:19:11:10 - 00:19:18:03

Inara

Oh, Too Long, Didn't Read. So do you see this abbreviation? Okay, but too long to read. So just in short, I stopped watching reality TV like, a while ago, and my life has been considerably better. My quality of life has just improved. And I don't compare my life in a sense, to how I think it should be. I don't feel like I'm particularly behind in the sense that it's just the less that you engage in that content, I guess you get to appreciate your actual life more. And my mum actually said that, I don't know if you remember. Well, you would know the show MTV cribs, right? And my mum said she had to stop watching that because she found that she wasn't as grateful for the things that she has. And then and I was like, okay. Yeah. Totally agree. Totally agree. And I just stopped watching it.

00:19:57:01 - 00:19:58:19

Luther

Was that like a shout out to my age!?

00:19:58:21 - 00:19:59:22

Inara

Oh, you know…

00:20:06:03 - 00:20:07:21

Luther

Interesting!

00:20:07:23 - 00:20:09:18

Inara

Yeah, I know how you feel.

00:20:09:18 - 00:20:14:14

Keira

But no, this is very funny because I was actually watching Love Island yesterday. Oh, yeah. But with these shows, I think for me personally, I would say it is just harmless escapism because I can I don't see myself in the people of the cast members on the show. And so I can separate my reality from their reality, even though the reality is probably not even true because you have to realize that reality TV shows the made for entertainment, and so they will like make things more dramatic than they really are. But yeah, I feel like I'm a lot less impressionable than, let's say, children who are watching these shows. Because they may see, well, hopefully they're not watching Love Island. But like they. May see what's going on and be like, is this what a relationship is going to look like? And so it does end up providing really unrealistic expectations onto what things should really be. But because. I, I feel like I can just really easily separate myself from the show. And so I just end up really enjoying it. And like, when it really funny.

00:21:24:22 - 00:21:25:01

Inara

I have to disagree. Like, I don't know, like this is really interesting, but I don't know if I'm allowed to shout out books. But this is a book called This is Not Propaganda, and it's about how anyone can get indoctrinated into cults or of online media cults. And so I like to think that everything that you consume does affect you, and it does. So even if you don't think it does, it does subconsciously that your thinking over time it will erode at you. And if you look at sort of authoritarian regimes and you think, how does everyone believe in that? Like how does everyone follow that leader? But it's very slow. It's a very slow process. And most of these leaders were elected, like, most of these people were democratically elected.

And then it just turned into a sort of pattern of media slowly. There's only one, news outlet that you can read. And now slowly, there's only one newspaper that you can read, and it's like we have this illusion of choice, like, well, yeah, we have like, so much like, I could not get influence. Like, I'll just read in as a news article if I think, but this one is a bit biased or I won't read The Sun, so I'll read the Guardian, but then you find out that they're kind of owned by the same person. You know, I think you can. Everyone gets affected by watching things like that, even if it is subconsciously. But I do get what you mean by you can separate yourself.

00:22:36:06 - 00:22:37:01

Keira

But I think, yeah, I think it's important for me to mention that those are the only like, that's the only episode I ever watched! I'm like not into Reality TV shows. Yeah. But yeah, my friends and I just like put it on yesterday and we're watching it. Yeah and I think that also definitely contributes as to why my views were like…Because I just, I was watching the whole time, I was just thinking like, no way, like it's actually like that. But yeah, important for me to mention that that is actually the only episode.

00:23:14:20 - 00:23:42:21

Luther

Anybody who knows me knows I love Love is blind. Oh, that's my show. It's called disclaimer. And I think for me, it feels like harmless escapism up until that point is a point of like, maybe if I'm bingeing or if I don't know if I've got time off work and, like, that's all I'm consuming, then it can feel like it spills over into something else. But in those moments in my life where I'm particularly busy and I'm watching an episode here or there, then it feels like just decompression and just get my mind off whatever has been consuming me during the day. But I do think also that yeah, there is to your point about maybe there's like an insidious slow, erosion that can happen if you're consuming too much of this content.

It's a it's a funny story. I was on the tube the other day, and again, I'm not going to say the company, but there's one of these advertisements for a, like, food delivery companies, the like, package the meals and then send them to your, to your door. And the advertisements, it read regain your balance. And it showed an image of this family carrying their groceries very happy all together because they've made an order from this company. And then in the background you can see somebody who didn't make an order, and they're all over the place. They've spilled all the their food on the floor. They're in a right state. And I'm looking at the image, and the family hasn't even noticed the woman like on the floor and has paid no attention whatsoever. And I was like, oh, like what? It's a horrible social value. Like, I'm good, I'm nice and she's fallen over and there's no sort of recognition for another person or what they're going through. And I thought to myself, how do we get to this point? And I'm not saying that if you watch, you know, reality TV shows, it's going to get you there. But I think it touches on your point in terms of, you know, maybe there's that slow erosion that you get to this point where you look at certain aspects of society and maybe the lack of moral social values and maybe there's some connection there. Between some of the things that we're consuming that we might not even know or perceive or feel as being negative for us. You know, you'll see this advertisment and I'll say, I'll tell you that, do it, you see on the tube.

00:25:53:08 - 00:26:08:05

Keira

No, but I definitely agree with you with how you say you are essentially the media you consume. And so, yeah, I think it's just important to have a critical eye on what you are watching. And with reality TV shows, it's just important to remember

that everything like the drama has been emphasized because it's for the purpose of entertainment.

00:26:13:15 - 00:26:17:00

Luther

You are the media you consume.

00:26:17:02 - 00:26:18:13

Keira

I really agree with that.

00:26:18:13 - 00:26:34:19

Keira

I've realized a significant increase in my productivity in my day to day life when, let's say my tick tock for you page is lots of videos of people, like studying, for instance. Or if people are, you know, living these healthy lifestyles. I feel I feel like way more motivated actually, to, you know, live a life like that. But that can definitely have negative consequences because let's say, you know, you you get a lot of videos on your feed that are about people living these not so great lifestyles. Then I feel like it's quite easy to, you know, normalize that and then you end up, I don't know, you know, you kind of end up going into that.

00:27:07:22 - 00:27:13:00

Inara

Falling into the abyss or the sunken place from Get Out. You just, oh my goodness. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like that.

00:27:16:06 - 00:27:27:09

Luther

So, are you saying that a lot of the whatever's on your feed, can influence how you take forward your day and the choices that you make?

00:27:27:11 - 00:27:27:19

Keira

Yeah, definitely. So if we go back to your point about the news and how you wake up, and then the first thing you see is all this negative news, and you say that that affects your day the rest of your day. To a, to a less severe extent, of course, if you see, like if you constantly consume negative content, then that will end up eventually, subconsciously affecting you. It can lower your mood. Well, that's what I've noticed with myself at least. And so, yeah, what I've done is if I ever see something that, you know, doesn't align with how I want to live or like my personal views, I just press them on and just the thing

00:28:06:10 - 00:28:20:21

Luther

How do you classify what's negative? Because it just came to me in terms of like, fitness videos, for example, for one person that's going to be super motivating. Let me go to the gym, let me work out, let me deal with this. And then for another person, oh my God, look at me. I don't look like they do. So how do you like distinguish between what's good for you and what isn't? Or is it you just feeling it out?

00:28:28:10 - 00:28:47:22

Keira

I think a lot of it is based on my own previous experiences, and I think through that, I've kind of learned to distinguish what is good for me and what's not, even though that isn't top notch yet and I don't know if it will ever be, but yeah, basically, on my from my past experiences, I think I can I'm now able to tell if like, let's say an exercise video, if that's like way unrealistic for me or like if it's actually something that, you know, I can live up to.

00:28:56:19 - 00:29:22:02

Luther

I’m curious as well, does this also translate to your studies? I'm touching on this point about comparison. And students in other classes who you may perceive as more intelligence or not as intelligence even, or whatever it might be, looks wise, is does this play out on campus in in the classroom as well?

00:29:22:06 - 00:29:40:19

Inara

I think like, this is the thing I used to be really bad with academic validation. So I sort of made a promise to myself when I did come to university that it would be my own individual journey. So it takes a lot more effort because you have to foster relationships with every single one of your lecturers so that you can have someone affirming you in that, yeah, you're doing well or this is something that you can change and then you can get that tailored feedback for yourself. Whereas if you're not as engaged with who's teaching you or you're sort of just getting grades as your feedback, and the only time that you communicate with professors is when you're reading the feedback on on essays, which can be quite harsh sometimes because they're like, what's this question mark? And just like lots of scribbles over your work, it can feel quite impersonal. So it definitely does play out in an academic environment in that, you know, that comparison and in self-worth as well. But there are ways to go around it. You can really personalise your studies. It just takes a lot of planning and effort again, which yeah, that's that's another thing.

00:30:23:06 - 00:30:29:05

Keira

I think it's just so important to remember that, you know, a lot of people, a lot of these people that you are surrounded by, they come from very different backgrounds. To me, for instance, a lot of them have come from my more privileged private school backgrounds and I'm just I didn't come from that. And so I think it is quite unfair to compare yourself to people who have had a completely different life to you. Before the comparison got really bad to the point where I was like, why are they smart enough? Why am I not this? Why am I not that? But I think I've altered my attitude towards that. And now I'm like, I can be like this. Like I can work hard and be like this. Because you're always going to be surrounded by people who are quote unquote better than you. And I think your attitude towards that really matters. Yeah. And I've noticed that I'm a lot more successful now that I've changed my approach. And instead of perceiving all the insanely clever people around me rather than perceiving that as like, negative and constantly thinking, why am I not like this now, I now I tell myself, I can be like that

00:31:37:20 - 00:31:52:16

Inara

I agree I did just have a flashback to my first lecture and it was like a making history one. And my course convener, he sits us all down and he says all of you are capable of getting a first in this degree. If you're able to get into the course, then you can get a first. And I was like, right, I can get a first. And he's always had that attitude of it's just something that you can fix and work on, because if you can get in there, you're more than capable of, you know, and we saw our A-levels. I think he thought that was all. Yeah. So it wasn't like a year where you're like anxious because it was teachers grades. So you sat your A-levels, you know that you are capable of being able to get first, then if you can get in. But it also depends on who you are, who you have around you. The experience varies from coast to course. I'm really lucky with my department, but I know it's been different for other people.

00:32:33:24 - 00:32:52:08

Keira

So, okay. Social media is able to connect people in ways you've never seen before. The issues associated with personal addiction, algorithm manipulation and security weakness have made people more sceptical. When you consider all the factors, do you think social media has done more good or harm for society?

00:32:52:08 - 00:33:02:05

Inara

Personally, I would like my ideal life is to not have social media and I am phasing it out. So TikTok, everyone knows that I'm banned from. I'm not banned because of anything that I did. I'm spun because I have terrible self control and the app is on my phone. But ideally, if I didn't need WhatsApp or Instagram to connect with people, those are the two that I have now. If I didn't need it to actually stay in contact with people, I would love to not have it. And to have like a physical camera and like have physical I pods and stuff, but all of those. That's a privilege though. You need to actually have a lot of money to be able to like buy vinyls. And like I realized in looking at disconnecting and online, that is is always a certain demographic of people that have the privilege to be able to disconnect as well from the world. So it's always like the tech bros are able to just go and like buy a filter in the middle of nowhere and disconnect because they have so many other people hired taking care of their life for them. So yeah, that's that's I think it's done more harm than good. And I'd love to phase it out. But again, it's very difficult to do so nowadays.

00:33:56:05 - 00:34:00:17

Luther

What are the harms that you witnessed or felt?

00:34:01:06 - 00:34:17:17

Inara

I mean, for like younger? I'm thinking back to when we were in high school. So secondary school, not high school. Secondary school. Bullying, self-image like it impacts you so much. I mean, I think I had it as well where it's like, if you don't have sort of lots of siblings in the house, you don't have a life outside of that. And you're on your phone so much. I mean, like, now, if I had kids, I would never give them a phone early anymore. But I get why when I go back to, like, when I was 11, begging like my mum for phone, like, please, please, please, like everyone's on Instagram. Everyone's on like an 11 year old. This doesn't need to be on there.

And, I think I just consume so much. I then change the way that I saw myself and how happy I was in life. So. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if you have any views on.

00:34:47:02 - 00:34:47:05

Keira

That as well. I know that a lot of studies have shown that people who are on social media regularly, it increases feelings of anxiety and depression and social media and devices in general, the designed to keep us in really reactive states. And I think that's definitely proven to be true. Going back to the cancel culture question, you just got so many people arguing on the internet for like a really long time. And I think that also has to do with the lack of face to face communication that social media has provided. I think now when social media initially started, it was mainly for the purpose of connecting with, you know, friends or family. But now it's kind of progressed into connecting with people who you don't really know with strangers. And when you're constantly communicating with strangers online through a purely online connection, you start to lowkey dehumanize them and like it's you and they become characters, basically. And I think that's why that's why people feel like they can see the most unhinged things to. And that's why they just project a lot of things onto just random people on the internet. Because we dehumanize them and like, we no longer see them.

00:36:08:07 - 00:36:11:24

Inara

Say one thing that you'll be somebody posting about their day and like, oh, a day in the life. And then, It's like. It's a horrible thing that you see it on.

00:36:15:10 - 00:36:18:17

Keira

People always have something bad to say.

00:36:18:19 - 00:36:19:10

Inara

Yeah.

00:36:19:12 - 00:36:34:17

Keira

And I know that a lot of research has also shown that people are more drawn to being negative than positive. And social media is definitely it definitely shows that. So yeah. And also talking about how you would how you understand why your mum didn't give you like access social media that age. I do think that should be an age limit on social media. I know it's terrible now.

00:36:45:19 - 00:36:46:05

Inara

It's like it's just so dangerous as well for a child to be in that world, because there, there's this, show that I used to watch where they, there was like, a nonprofit and they worked against sort of predators and children online. And it was just the things that you would see on that show and you'd think, I can't believe, like children on these apps. Again, they're so vulnerable to so much in the world. Yeah. Because, I mean, it's so easy to just find someone and send a message to them, and then it turns into real life situations which can get even more dangerous. So, yeah.

00:37:15:11 - 00:37:22:02

Keira

And also if you if you look at like the younger generation, I chat if…Like gen Z, a lot of them are really into the trends like very much into the trends. And I don't know about you guys, but me personally, I really had to go through those really awkward phases of my life to actually discover what I like. But now that so many children are quick to hop on these trends, they they don't end up figuring out their identity basically. And so that becomes like a lack of diversity. So I think it is ruining the originality of society, basically. But I do think it is a there can be pros, I guess, for children having access to social media. I think for me it did make me a lot more open to people's ideas. And it does definitely enhance your own ideas, but it depends on how you take those ideas, because I see someone that disagrees with me on the internet and instead they'll just like, argue with them.

00:38:27:15 - 00:38:47:21

Inara

Social media, like relating to my experiences like a student for my societies has been great. So we've been able to organize things a lot easier because you can go and just connect to the usual versions of your societies sports especially like it's a really nice way to be able to keep up with my progress and then like sort of inspire people as well. And then we have obviously our main page. So your sort of society page can repost your stories too, which is nice. It has been positive in finding out about things as well, like mahjong society which is see from rogue I would not have realized existed, but I think it just popped up on my Instagram feed and now we like try and regularly go so it is a great way to find out about things, which is why I wouldn't get rid of it. Not now anyway.

00:39:11:11 - 00:39:29:17

Keira

A common issue that a lot of students face, especially in uni, is that they may feel alone. And so I think social media has really greatly helped that because you get students who have done things that you have done and then they can a lot of videos are see like about their experience and how they got through it at that. And I think that really helps. During summer last year, I went through like a flare up of my chronic illness. And so balancing that in uni has been insane, difficult. And if I didn't have access to the videos of people who went through what I did, I feel like I wouldn't have got through it because it was really rough and seeing people on the other side of that, that really helped me get through it.

00:40:01:05 - 00:40:22:08

Inara

Thanks for tuning in to Campus Conversations. We hope you had as much fun listening as we did chatting. If you enjoyed this episode don't forget to like and follow us on our various podcast streaming platforms linked in the bio. If you've got a story, question or topic you'd like us to cover, the link is in the description. Until next time on Campus Conversations.